Wilhelm Petersen (politician)

Wilhelm Petersen (born July 3, 1889 in Altona , † November 29, 1968 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German metal worker and international trade union official.

Imperial Era and Weimar Republic

Petersen learned the trade of toolmaker and in 1908 became a member of the German Metalworkers' Association (DMV). In 1919, as agitation leader of the Hamburg DMV, he was responsible for public relations and recruiting. From 1920 until the break-up of the free trade unions on May 2, 1933, he was the first authorized representative of the DMV administration office in Hamburg.

National Socialism

At the beginning of 1933 Wilhelm Petersen was elected a member of the Hamburg parliament for the SPD. On May 2, he separated from the SPD parliamentary group and formed a union parliamentary group with other trade unionists . Together with John Ehrenteit , Hugo Schotte and others, they followed the proclaimed course of the leadership of the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB) to distance themselves from the SPD and to face the new power situation. The union faction did not reach the strength of the faction with six MPs and they joined the NSDAP faction as interns . The members of the trade union faction justified this step, which was viewed as treason within the SPD and large parts of the union, with the fact that they wanted to save the parliamentary representation of the labor movement. They were of the opinion (and should be proved right) that the SPD would be banned a short time later. But it was an illusion that they would achieve something for the workers by leaning on the new rulers. On July 10, 1933, their mandates were canceled shortly after those of the SPD.

Wilhelm Petersen was arrested several times in 1933 and in the following years and was banned from working . He was involved in anti-fascist trade union resistance and was one of the German liaison offices of the General Secretary of the International Association of Seafarers Edo Fimmen .

post war period

After the liberation from National Socialism in 1945, Wilhelm Petersen was initially appointed honorary chairman and, after being constituted, was again authorized representative of IG Metall for Hamburg and the surrounding area. He sat from February to October 1946 as a representative for the trade union faction in the Appointed Hamburg Citizenship .

From 1947 to 1949 he was also an assessor on the main board of the DGB board for the British zone and the state of Bremen . In 1947 he became chairman of IG Metall for this region together with Walter Freitag and then in 1948, together with Hans Brümmer and Walter Freitag, chairman of IG Metall for the bizone . From 1950 to 1956 he was a member of the executive board of IG Metall and from 1956 to 1964 chairman of the control committee of IG Metall.

From 1952 to 1957 Wilhelm Petersen was President of the Machine Industry and Apparatus Construction Department of the International Metalworkers Union (IMB).

Fonts

Together with Johannes Schult, he published several handbooks for the DGB regional district of Nordmark for the implementation of meetings in the Hamburg publishing house, Free Trade Union .

literature

• Walter Tormin: The history of the SPD in Hamburg 1945 to 1950. (= Forum Contemporary History , Volume 4) Results Verlag, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3879160287 (annotated register of persons).

Web links

• Biography in the archive of social democracy
• Biography of Wilhelm Petersen . In: Wilhelm H. Schröder : Social Democratic Parliamentarians in the German Reich and Landtag 1876–1933 (BIOSOP)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tormin: History. P. 15f.